Best of Both Worlds 3 ResultsLEMOORE, Calif. - No boxing heavyweight from California's Central Valley has ever reached the top 10 in the World Boxing Council rankings.
It is a safe bet that when the WBC releases their next rankings, Wasco's Manuel Quezada will be in the top 10.
Quezada faced his toughest challenge to date and he passed with flying colors as he knocked out Travis Walker (31-3-1) 2 minutes, 57 seconds into the first round on Thursday at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino.Quezada set Walker up with a pair of left-handed jabs and the connected with a huge overhand right that knocked Walker down. No 10-count was needed as Quezada retained his WBC CABOFE heayweight championship belt.
"I was surprised," Quezada said about his quick knockout. I thought I'd finish him in the later rounds. There was no way I thought I'd finish him that early."
The win was Quezada's 17th straight as he improved to 28-4 in his career and notched his 18th knockout. But no knockout was as big as the one he recorded Thursday night, leaving the door open to much bigger fights.
"I'll do whatever my promoter wants me to do," Quezada said. "A lot of people didn't know me before. I'm sure they'll know me now."
The loss was just Walker's third of his career, but all three have been by knockout.
Leading up to the fight, Quezada said there was some trash talk coming from Walker.
"I can gurantee you I'm not in his league," Quezada joked. "He's behind me now."
Quezada is on a roll lately and quickly climbing up the rankings. He started 11-4 in his career, but he has quickly turned all that around.
With 17 straight victories and a knockout victory against a fighter of Walker's caliber, only bigger things are on the horizon for Quezada.Tulare's Hector Alatorre turned back the clock as he defeated Mexican fighter Cristian Favela in a six-round, 140-pound bout.
With the victory, Alatorre snapped a six-fight losing streak to improve his record to 16-8."I was chilling and eating some burritos with my family when they called me," said Alatorre who took the fight on two-days notice. "This came up and I took it. I'll be honest. I needed the extra cash."
The decision to step into the ring on short notice turned into the correct one. Alatorre was the quicker, busier fighter and that is exactly what the judges saw. They scored the bout, 59-55, 58-56, 58-56. FUnews scored the bout a 56-56 draw.
After the fight, Alatorre said he was going to try and drop some weight so he can continue his career at 130 pounds.
"I won't fight at 140 again," he said. "I want to get down to 133 and if I feel comfortable there, I'll go down to 130."
Alatorre still has what it takes to compete at a high level. He started his career with 14 straight victories, and has taken on some very stiff competition and given them all they could handle. Even though the victories have not been there, he has had some strong showings in losses on big stages.
Now its time for Alatorre to start over and run some wins together.
"I'm going to go for my goal," he said. "I'm going to continue fighting."Bakersfield's Mike Dallas Jr. is a young star in the making. But one knock against him could be that he hasn't been able to finish his opponents, so far.
Dallas Jr. looked like he was trying to silence any critics he might have as he made quick work of experienced Mexican fighter Francisco Rios in a scheduled six-round junior welterweight bout.
Dalls Jr. knocked Rios down twice in the first round and continued his assault, forcing the referee to stop the fight 2:41 into the first round. In previous matches, Dallas Jr. has methodically beat up his opponents and was pleased with a decision victory, but in this bout he was definitely looking for a knockout.
And he got it.
Dallas Jr. improved to 9-0-1 and picked up his second knockout. Rios dropped to 10-10.Los Angeles featherweight Rico Ramos continued his impressive start to his career with a thrid-round technical knockout against Juan Jose Beltran.
Ramos took it to Beltran for three rounds, forcing his corner to step in and put an end to the bout.
Ramos improved to 11-0 in his career and picked up his seventh knockout.Jessica Rakoczy continued to be a dominant fighter as she defeated Jessica Mohs.
Rakoczy improved to 31-3 and picked up her 11th knockout as Mohs' corner threw in the towl 1:13 into the third round of a scheduled six-round bout.
Rakoczy peppered Mohs for the majority of the fight, and while it appeared as if Mohs could have continued, the corner simply put an end to the inevitable.
It was Rakoczy's second victory since her pregnancy.Adrian Tait started the night with a unanimous deision victory against Joshua Zurfluh in a four-round middleweight bout.
All three judges scored the bout in Tait's favor 40-36 as he improved to 4-1-1 in his pro career. Zurfluh dropped to 1-6-1.

Tachi Palace Fights mixed martial artsFormer All-American wrestler Chad Mendes was a late addition to the Tachi Palace Fights mixed martial arts card, and was thrust into the main event bout of the night.Mendes looked more than comfortable as the main event as he quickly disposed of Ogden, Utah's Steven Siler in a scheduled three-round featherweight bout.Mendes won with a knockout just 44 seconds into the first round. He wasted no time as the first punch he threw connected squarely on Siler's chin and knocked him down. Mendes jumped on Siler to finish the fight, but Siler showed some toughness as he managed to escape.
But then Mendes connected with a vicious left cross to complete the knockout in his most impressive performance to date.
Mendes, a highly touted young fighter for Team Alpha Male, improved to 4-0 and picked up his second knockout.Shawn Bias managed to overcome a point deduction to defeat Shawn Klarcyk via majority decision, 29-27, 29-27, 28-28, in a battle of two former PFC champions.The majority of the fight too place on the ground with Klarcyk attempting to lock in a submission.
Bias managed to avoid a submission and in the process did damage with his ground and pound.
The first round was difficult to score with Klarcyk almost locking in an arm bar, but Bias did do more damage. The second and third rounds were also close, but it did appear as if Bias did enough to win them.
With the victory, Bias improved to 15-8, and Klarcyk dropped to 9-4.
Once the boxing was over, the fans really took the Tachi Palace by storm for the mixed martial arts portion of the card.And it didn't hurt that Lemoore's Brandon Lorenz energized the crowd with a brutal first-round knockout of Mark Matthews.
In a really exciting round, Lorenz connected with a big cross that knocked Matthews out before he even hit the canvas at the 2:39 mark.
Lorenz improved to 2-1, and Matthews dropped to 1-2.Sergio Quinones made it 2-for-2 for Lemoore fighters. Quinones forced Hanford's Chris Sanchez to tap out 1:54 into the first round. Quinones dominated the match from the beginning and didn't waste any time in finishing it. He improved to 4-5 with three submissions, and Sanchez dropped to 1-1.Visalia's Cody Gibson made sure Lemoore fighters didn't make it 3-for-3.
Gibson, who trains out the Samurai Dojo in Exeter, won with a second-round TKO against Lemoore's Dustin Rocha. Gibson dominated the majority of the fight and did a lot of damage with his ground and pound before the referee stepped in and stopped it :42 into the second round.
Gibson, who wrestled collegiately, improved to 2-0 in his young career, and Rocha dropped to 0-1.